In my own European Patent Application EP 0 962 768 (corresponding to Swedish patent application SE-9801827-8), incorporated herein in its entirety by reference, there is disclosed and claimed a product suitable for dispersing foodstuff for analytical purposes. The object of the invention claimed therein is to prepare samples that are possible to analyze with as few errors and artifacts in the analysis results as possible.
The product claimed in EP 0 962 768 comprises a composition of a complexing agent, e.g. emulsifying salts and an alkali salt. The product is dissolved in water and the foodstuff to be analyzed is mixed with the solution, and the mixture is milled in a suitable mill. A homogeneous dispersion in liquid form results, having a milk-like appearance. This dispersion is then readily analyzed by common methods, such as mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy, UV spectroscopy or chemical extraction methods, to mention some.
A problem in all analyses of complex compounds or material is to be sure that the analytical results are accurate. The accuracy and precision of different analysis methods have to be validated frequently with (standard) reference samples and/or in collaborative studies. For inorganic compounds there are standard samples available. For organic compounds like fat, protein, carbohydrate in different foodstuffs, long-life standard samples are not so common as in general, it is more complicated to store the foodstuffs or samples without any deterioration of the different compounds. In the food industry for analytical purposes the validation of different methods are mainly controlled and calibrated by analysing the control or calibration samples with the routine method as well as with some reference chemical methods. The chemical methods are often time-consuming and complicated and therefore expensive. In most cases the samples are sent to a reference laboratory. It can take some days or weeks to obtain an answer, but usually the routine laboratory needs the results immediately.
Therefore, there is a great demand of long-life standard samples of different foodstuffs in the food and feed laboratories, so the different methods can be controlled and calibrated immediately.